Very Confused About Satellite TV

Been doing some digging around and just can't seem to find a straight answer.

I've come across a couple Satellite Dish system suppliers namely ...

Explorer ESSI  http://www.explorersc2000.com/en_home.html

Winegard Trav'ler  http://www.winegard.com/travler

Both "say" they work with Bell Canada and Shaw. Both Bell and Shaw websites say (or infer) you can "go anywhere" and have TV service.

Yet when I call these two companies, they say NO, you have to install our dish and it only works in Canada.

So my question is, WHERE and HOW does one get mobile satellite TV both in Canada and the USA?

Kindly provide details if you can.

Thanks a ton!

Well, I no sooner posted this and got ahold of a local company that pretty much handles everything to do with Sat TV as well as WiFi and they've assured I'll have no problem getting signal in either country using Shaw (even though Shaw says it won't work but I think that's a political or legal thing).

Feel free to comment further on this topic though as I'm "all ears" (somewhat literally LOL)

There may be some things that don't work. I'm not sure if they do the spot beaming thing in Canada but in the US we only get local channels in a limited radius from our home market.

I suspect you will find that some signal deterioration as you move further south, but I'll defer to other Bell/Shaw users to address that. I've also seen comments that you need a larger dish to get good reception in the Southwest USA. And I understand that Bell TV service is different than Shaw Direct, but again, I have no firsthand knowledge.

This discussion on another site covers some of the same confusion you are having, so maybe some ideas there:
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26997282.cfm

I'm quite sure that other dish antennas can work with Shaw & Bell, but they may have to be configured specifically for them.

What you are not supposed to use south of the border is the SERVICE from either company, not the dish itself!! See the updated service agreement you signed when you subscribed to either service. Both Bell satellites (at 90? and the newer one at 81?) now have a very limited footprint  so that you will not receive their signals more than about 200 miles south (guesstimate) of the border. Shaw, on the other hand, has not replaced all its satellites (yet!!) and the signals are still available as far south as South Florida with a large oval dish (AFIK). (Note the posts that Gary referred to above are now 4 years old (but they seem to reflect the current situation).

There have been several unconfirmed recent reports that auto finding dishes/receivers don't seem to have an easy time finding the Shaw satellites when too far south but.... they likely have a GPS built-in (and perhaps updated software) so they know where the are in order to work. Neither company will service you if you call them and they realize you are not in Canada. Years ago (when it did work all the way south), Bell  even threatened to cut my service off completely after I had called them for help as I had unknowingly violated the service agreement.

Either physical dish may work with either system if the manufacturer like Winegard says so, they are usually configured by switches, the number of LNBO's provided  and the specific receiver being used, but it is one or the other, not both interchangeably. The fixed dishes like the ones used at home are fairly specific as they come with the LNBO units required for the specific service and are not configurable like the mobile units. The Bell or Shaw service reps you talked to are very likely unaware of the various dishes available other than their own.

Spot beaming of local channels is not used in Canada. At home, I receive at least one channel from St John Nfld, the Maritimes (several), Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg etc. all the way to Victoria BC  on the package I have from Bell, they call it "time shifting", very useful for recording using a DVR.  The package from Shaw is similar.

Great info folks, much appreciated.

What about the built-in TV antenna?  Would it work for local channels wherever I might be?  Apparently these Sat dishes & installation are quite costly around here (over $3,000).

SilvrT said:

Great info folks, much appreciated.

What about the built-in TV antenna?  Would it work for local channels wherever I might be?  Apparently these Sat dishes & installation are quite costly around here (over $3,000).

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The TV antenna will work for any over-the-air stations you are close enough to receive, though on today's digital TVs you'll still have to have the TV search for the channels it can find since, unlike the old analog units, they can't just tune in whatever is there and receivable -- it has to go into the search mode. I guess it's too complicated for them to build that into a digital TV so it would automatically tune and sync with what it can receive.

And, depending on the age of the TV (perhaps), you may need a digital converter to convert the OTA signal to something you older TV turner can actually use.

Alfa38User said:

And, depending on the age of the TV (perhaps), you may need a digital converter to convert the OTA signal to something you older TV turner can actually use.

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The 5th wheel we bought is a 2012 but I'm going to replace the TV with a new one that is a bit larger so I don't have to sit in the middle of the room to see it  LOL

Larry N. said:

unlike the old analog units, they can't just tune in whatever is there and receivable -- it has to go into the search mode. I guess it's too complicated for them to build that into a digital TV so it would automatically tune and sync with what it can receive.

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That's what the receiver does when you do a band scan.  As far as needing to do a scan whenever you move into a new area, blame the TV stations and the FCC.  When TV transitioned from analog to digital the TV stations wanted to keep their branding, i.e. NBC Channel 3 even though the new digital signal was being broadcast on UHF Channel 48.  So the FCC came up with the Virtual Channel scheme so the TV would display Channel 3 even though it's actually tuning to RF Channel 46.

When you first turn on a Digital TV, or move into a new area, the TV has to scan the entire VHF and UHF bands and build a database showing each station's Virtual and RF channels.

Once this is done, the TV will show Channel 3 even though it's tuning to Channel 48 (or whatever).

The FCC is also shrinking the amount of spectrum allocated to over the air TV by changing the RF channel assignments to free up more space for cell phones, etc.  Even if you're staying in the same area you may have to rescan in the future as TV stations change from one RF channel to another.

Regarding mounting a TV antenna on an RV, I would go with an omnidirectional antenna. They have less range than directional ones, but tend to be smaller, more compact, and easier to mount/install on the top.

Yes you have to often scan channels, but keep in mind OTA TV is free.

RE: Tv antennas... I on the other hand think the Omni's are JUNK. True if you are close enough (I'm not) to the stations they work well. but not many campgrounds are that close in (Well I imaging if I camped on Paris Mountain (home of TV station towers)..

THe Winegard Sensar IV with the Sensar Pro indoor module and the Winegard app on my phone.

WOW!!!